U.S. Pat. No. 4,600,204, as owned by the Assignee of this application, illustrates two variations of a vertical corner bumper which mounts on the front corners of a wire shopping cart basket so as to extend over a majority of the vertical extent of the corners. In one variation, the bumper is extruded of plastic and utilizes a complex wire member having multiple bends therein and hooks at the upper and lower ends for attaching the bumper to the basket corner. In the other variation, the bumper is molded of plastic and has an inner remote hook at the lower end, and a bent wire hook at the upper end for attaching the bumper to the basket. While the bumpers disclosed in the aforesaid patent are desirable from the standpoint of the protective feature which they provide, nevertheless they have been observed to also possess features which are less than optimum. For example, the plastic forming the bumpers is generally considered too hard to perform an effective cushioning function, particularly when the bumper is extruded since material suitable for extrusions of this type generally do not possess the desired cushioning effect. Further, the overall structure of the bumper and specifically the manner in which it is attached to the cart is undesirably costly and complex.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide an improved bumper which extends the full extent of the front corners of the basket, but which bumper improves upon and overcomes disadvantages associated with the prior bumpers as described above.